Community Column: The Site Beyond the Game

In his latest article, community columnist Sean Bulger looks at "The Site Beyond the Game". This community management focused column looks at official sites, how different games do it and what else is out there.

Every game has an official site for various reasons. The official site of a game is either an important hub of information and activity or it is simply a marketing page trying to draw players in. Or sometimes it is both, like how Sony Online Entertainment sets up their websites - the main page being a flash page used to draw players in, while also retaining forums and the Players websites.

Read it all after the leap.

Read Full Article

OK! a few notes on your commentary...

First things first, Showing off your toon isn't really my favorite thing to do, in fact I left Ultima Online because of item whoring 12 year olds and ebaying little punks who had no actual skill at the game. Which combined all to well with EA's inability to balance game content.

What you imply about the social structure of a community sounds very carebear-ish to me. The WoW Armory, is only really useful as a way of looking at opposing players who stand out in your mind, when they are in the battlegrounds. So in my opinion, this doesn't really apply to Darkfall, as it is almost COMPLETELY skill based. If for some reason they allowed your skill list to be viewable on the website and linked it like the Armory's guilds, I would be very upset. Imagine somebody is known for being an uber tank/mage, so they attract people to their toons' skill list, BAM now you have 500 clones running around, or worse, you have people exploiting the skill set's weaknesses destrying the image of a skilled player.

And as far as comparing a gaming community site to Myspace or Facebook? HUH?! Those are communities that don't actually DO anything BUT be a community, for a game in development yes, I see the comparison, but for a game that is launched? Give me a break. Granted, some level of fame ingame can be garnered from being active in the forums, but only in the people who are also active in the community. Which doesn't extend to all the people in the game. Which is in my opinion a waste of time.

Just a few thoughts as to the relation of this commentary to Darkfall...

~Manaburn

Hmmm I smell Tard.
I don't see how this article relates to Darkfall either. Since it doesn't mention vapor ware and websites in conjunction. Nor do I see anywhere where this connected to Darkfall and the only way they could connect it is to say something like. "Games such as Darkfall which only exist as a website with no actual game, can create a rabid fan base for a game that doesn't even exist."

Guys - This is a general article from the HUB, not about Darkfall, I just threw news items on some of the fansites where I thought some people might enjoy it. Sorry if that was misleading.

wow, them folks over on the darkfall site sure seem to be an interesting bunch!

I think onew of the best examples of a modern day site for a game is Bungie.net with Halo 2 and Halo 3. They have so much on there (including heatmaps) and I think they're leading the way in that respect. The whole time reading through that I felt like he was describing Bungie's site. Anyway, I love where games are taking the net and I think it's great what a lot of games are doing with their sites.

I too think it is important for games to incorporate a 'web 2.0' site with their games. Its true, gamers exist outside of the game as well..I know its hard to imagine. What we have to do is look at existing models and not get stuck on these trends, but break away and create a new web model for games that has yet to be made. Sure there is the wow armory, but that is not a web 2.0 site, its just a hub of information about players. Its static in the eyes of the player, they can't change it. THAT site will NOT work for all games. But social gaming sites will be the way of the future for gamers. Its just who will take the initiative and create it. If anyone will be at GDC Austin, look for me and we can talk about gaming and website development.